As in other English-speaking countries, musicology is taught in Ireland in depart-ments/schools of music, usually in conjunction with at least some of the following areas: composition (or occasionally “sonic arts”), music technology, music education, and performance. Music theory does not exist in Ireland as an independent subject.
In the Irish Republic there are departments or schools of music at six universities:
Dublin City University (DCU), Maynooth University (MU), University College Cork (UCC), University College Dublin (UCD), University of Limerick (at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (IWA) as well as separately at Mary Immacu-late College (MIC) which is associated with the University of Limerick), and Trin-ity College Dublin (TCD); in Northern Ireland there are two institutions: Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) und Ulster University (UU). Music is also a subject at the Institutes of Technology in Dundalk (DkIT) and Waterford (WIT). Finally there are three conservatories of music: the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM), the Con-servatory of Music and Drama in Dublin – the latter being part of the Technological University Dublin (TUD) – and the Cork School of Music, which is associated with the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT). Most bachelor programmes run for three years but in some institutions (e.g. TCD, CIT) the bachelor degree is a four year pro-gramme. Due to the dominant position of traditional music in Ireland’s cultural life, ethnomusicology occupies a more central position at virtually all institutions than would be the case in the German-speaking countries.
Music history surveys are taught at all institutions, yet their length varies consid-erably (between one and four semesters). Music since 1900 usually occupies twenty percent or less of the available time. The handbook most often used is A History of Western Music (Burkholder, Grout, Palisca), followed at some distance by Taruskin’s The Oxford History of Western Music. The lectures are mostly structured chronologi-cally, although some institutions (UCC, DkIT) have a genre-based or thematic struc-ture. In most institutions the surveys integrate popular music and film music, and in part also traditional music. IWA and UCC, where traditional and popular music occupy rather strong positions, are the only institutions that do not offer surveys fo-cused primarily or exclusively on art music; MU is also currently moving away from this type of offering.
Outside of the survey modules, contemporary art music also plays a part in other modules, yet to a variable degree across the spectrum of departments, institutes, col-leges, and conservatories. Of course, works composed after 1900 feature in modules
such as “Formal analysis”, “Introduction to music” or “Listening and repertory”;
though it is difficult to quantify the extent to which works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries feature in these modules, it is likely to be rather slight, and the same principle applies to modules on the history of genres (such as opera, symphony, concerto, chamber music, or song). With approximately fifty percent, WIT offers the largest number of dedicated modules on contemporary art music (albeit for a relatively small number of students), followed by QUB with about thirty percent.
At the other end of the spectrum are institutions such as IWA, UCC or UU which in recent times prioritized ethnomusicology (with a particular focus on Irish traditional music), popular music, and film music – this coincided with a reduced engagement with art music (in UCC currently only two out of thirteen lecturers are historical musicologists while the department recently hired Ireland’s first permanent, full-time popular music specialist). While at these institutions twentieth-century music is the focus of research and teaching, there are few modules that prioritise, or are exclusively dedicated to, recent art music.
Students with an interest in musicology often have access to modules in composi-tion, music technology, or performance, which mostly (with the exception of per-formance) have a strong focus on contemporary composition. This is particularly the case in CIT, DCU, DkIT, IWA, MIC, MU, QUB, UCC, UU, TCD and WIT. In these institutions students are also regularly exposed to recitals by internal composers and musicians (lecturers and students). Some universities (e.g. DCU, MIC, or TCD) have ensembles in residence which offer several workshops and concerts annually;
others are involved in organising festivals (such as WIT and the “Waterford New Music Week”). Elsewhere departments organise concert visits (for example, in order to provide students with the opportunity to write concert reviews), albeit rarely with a special focus on contemporary music.
Apart from some modules designed as surveys with titles such as “Early twentieth-century music”, “Music since 1945” or “Modernism and avant-garde” (which exist in DCU, DkIT, MU, QUB, RIAM, UCD, TUD or WIT), the local focus of music his-tory modules often depends on the research interests of the lecturers. For example, recent Irish music history is well represented in MIC, TUD and WIT, while British music history has long been particularly prominent in QUB. Across Ireland there are modules on the entire spectrum of art music since 1900, from Debussy and the Ballets Russes to Messiaen, Ligeti, and John Adams, as well as thematic surveys such as “Music and gender” or “Music and politics”. There are between six and eighteen full-time, permanent lecturers at Irish departments/schools of music (leaving aside here the ITs and conservatories of music) – although these numbers include ethno-musicologists, composers, and performers. The number of historical musicologists at each institution largely varies between two and four, with QUB (6) and MU (9) as
leaders in the field. Currently (2016/17) QUB offers the largest number of modules on recent art music.
In Ireland musicology has only emerged as an independent discipline over the last thirty years. Hence there is still much basic research to be undertaken with regard to composers, works, and institutions of all periods, while publications such as the En-cyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (2013) or the series Irish Musical Studies (currently eleven volumes) continuously expand the spectrum of Irish musical history that is available for teaching. In particular, the commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising (when the Irish rose up against the British rule in order to establish an Irish republic) and the subsequent war of independence and civil war periods (1919–23) have led to musico-logical research – the first fruits of which have already found their way into teaching.
The future of Irish higher music education (which ultimately includes musicologi-cal engagement with contemporary music) is currently subject to serious politimusicologi-cal and academic debates. After the economic collapse of 2008 funding was reduced signifi-cantly, leading to vacancies being left unfilled or even positions being formally with-drawn – at the author’s university the number of permanent positions was reduced by twenty percent while student numbers increased by eighteen percent and are bound to increase further. In recent years the economic situation has improved, yet politi-cians generally prioritise schools over higher education institutions. At least some positions have now been refilled and a few new positions have even been created (e.g.
at DCU and UCD). The National University of Ireland Galway – for a long time the only Irish university without a music department – has introduced Music as a BA subject in 2018/19 and is in the process of setting up such a department, although for now, there is just one permanent, full-time position. The new programme’s cur-riculum is still in its developmental stages. Generally, it is likely that the engagement with contemporary art music in Irish musicology will continue to be more closely related to traditional, popular, and other musics than would be the case in German-speaking countries.
Assaf Shelleg